As I anxiously await the arrival of the new sewing machine, I thought I might share a quilt that I am really fond of. It is my one and only antique quilt. Back in the late, gulp, 1980s (when I was 2--LOL!), hubby and I saw this quilt in a yard sale. They were using it to pack up items to cushion them for transport. I was a very, very new quilter and I knew that it was pretty and old.
That pretty much sums up my quilting knowledge. The edges were tattered and some of the patches of a black fabric had worn down to show mostly foundation muslin. Some brown is very worn also. The batting was just clumps of cotton pressed flat and sewn through. The back was made up of feed sacks that came from a flour mill about 40 miles from here. You can just make out the printing on only one of the sacks.
It was a mess. It really should have been a cutter quilt, but I was young, stupid, and fell in love with that faint printing on the feed sack. The owner thought I was crazy but sold it to me anyway--cheap!
My mom helped me to put a turkey red border around the edge to protect it (yes, I know, a restoration no-no) and it has hung in my home ever since. For a while it was folded over a hanging rail in my bedroom. In another house, it hung in the entryway. Currently, it hangs from spring clips on a display wire behind my couch in the living room. It's beautiful.
It is made up of shirting fabrics and is quilting in an unmarked Baptist fans pattern. At least I hope that the ladies didn't mark this out, otherwise those Baptist gals had been drinking rather heavily! LOL!
I didn't really pay too much attention to the details of this quilt; I just knew that I liked it. But, it does explain why I seem to be fascinated with quilts made from shirting fabrics and the Baptist fan quilt pattern. It's just kind of familiar to me after all the years of living with my quilt.
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